We are in Grand Rapids for the annual Great Lakes Invitational hockey tournament while the big winter storm hits. Fortunately all I need to do is walk a block from the hotel to the arena later today, no need to drive.
Testing Android Desktop Mode
I enabled the Android Desktop Mode on the Pixel 10 then connected the phone to my BenQ Monitor via the USB-C port, selected the Desktop Experience as the option in the notification that appeared on the phone and behold this desktop. To complete the picture I paired the Logitech MX Keys keyboard and mouse to the phone using Bluetooth so that I can fully use the desktop experience. I am typing this right now in Google Keep and then I will copy and paste this into the micro.blog app to post to my blog.
All of the Android apps installed on the phone are available for use in desktop mode. Google apps like Gmail and Keep are working in tablet landscape mode with dual panes. Tabs that I had open in Chrome are retained in the desktop mode.
It looks like apps start in a default sized window.. When I start the Calculator the app window size is way too large. I can resize the window to something more reasonable but when I shutdown the app and restart it starts back at the larger size. When I run Radarscope the resolution of the radar is too low and doesn’t change even when the window is made smaller. Obviously, these are instances where the apps are not developed for a large display.
YouTube video playback is good but the audio playback is on the phone speakers and not the monitor. I think the USB-C connection should be able to support audio.
The final test was to enable the Linux Terminal mode which then on the first run downloaded the virtual machine which takes up a little over 600 Mb. The font size is too small for me to read but I found instructions at the following web page to increase it and the font family to make it easier to read. The main benefit to me for having this Linux terminal would be to SSH into a Linux server running on my home network, and for that task this worked perfectly.
There was a light amount of freezing rain by us yesterday and during my walk this morning I took a couple of pictures to test the digital and optical zoom of the Pixel 10 camera. Here is the digital zoom and you can tell its not as crisp as the optical zoom below.
Here is the optical zoom, which you can tell is much better.
We have freezing rain all around us, it’s a good day to stay indoors.
Checking out the new camera.
Merry Christmas to me I got a new phone.
Merry Christmas!
Bleed Cubbie Blue: Twas the night before Cub Christmas, 2025
Tradition has us celebrating the birth of Jesus on December 25 although we don’t know the exact date of his birth. The date may have more to do with Roman tradition than fact, but what I do like about the date is that it coincides with the slow increase in daylight starting on December 21 for those of us in the northern hemisphere.
The light of Christ is constantly breaking in to the world but remember, light is that by which we see.
For a while I thought we were going to have a white Christmas, but that doesn’t look likely now. Today the temp was 14 degrees above average.
My MacBook is now pretty much my only desktop computing device and so now I am beginning to build the muscle memory for all of the keyboard shortcuts. Having been mostly in the Windows world all these years, the Command key is somewhat of a foreign concept. If you have any tips please share them.
My first act last Friday upon ending my last work day was to cleanse my desk of the work PC. Now my MacBook is a first class citizen rather than an interloper.
While technically I am not retired, I am thinking of myself as retired because I no longer have any work responsibilities. I think this is a mindset change more than anything. For example, normally when I start the Christmas vacation/holiday, I see the amount of unscheduled/committed time I have as finite because I know that it ends on New Years day. Not this year, this morning I am thinking more in terms of new routines. When do I want to get up? How do I want to start my mornings?
Friday, December 19 was my last work day at DXC. My retirement is officially on December 31, 2025 but I am now on holiday until then. Friday held within itself a bundle of emotions, starting with completing my last time sheets (weekly time reporting is perhaps the most important act of a DXC employee), then going to lunch with my wife, wrapping up with video calls with two of my former bosses who are no longer with DXC and another with those whom I have been working
I met my wife through work, specifically at an after work party that started with dinner and drinks at What’s On Second and an evening show of Second City at The Attic Theatre. The first time spent by just the two of us was during a work day lunch at the West Side deli. West Side no longer exists but we had our lunch at a nearby Potbellys, a place I often got lunch from when I worked at the Renaissance Center in Detroit. It seemed to be the best place to go for my final work day lunch.
Day 3 of the micro.blog photo challenge - evergreen. #mbdec
I don’t know what is worse as a Chicago Cubs fan. The frustration during the season when the players don’t perform as expected or the frustration during the off season when the front office don’t perfom as expected.
We have had very frosty weather the last several days. Way too early for me. #Frost #mbdec
Today is my last work Monday, and as every milestone passes the idea of my being retired becomes more real. The company has a mandatory “shut down” for the last two weeks of the year, so while my last official day as an employee is December 31, 2025, this coming Friday will be my last actual day “in the office.”
Finished reading: Separation of Church and Hate by John Fugelsang 📚
We got five inches of snow over night. I think the probability of a white Christmas is high.
